Cursed Blood |Lesbian Story| - Chapter 40: Chapter 40

After we left the casino, we went straight to find Octavia's aunt. According to the address, Florentine lived not far away from our town. The house was built on the top of a hill. It was a colonial-style mansion with the manicured garden surrounding it.
There was a guardhouse by the gate. We got out of the car and walked up to a security camera. Immediately, a screen attached to the wall flashed a static image of a bald man, who regarded us with a glare.
"Get out of here, kids," he said through the speaker.
"We want to meet Lady Florentine," Octavia said solemnly.
"Who are you?" the guard asked, looking at us like we were homeless people.
"A relative," she answered.
"Go away," the guard said. "Lady Florentine has no relatives."
"Well, she does now," I spoke up and showed the guard my crest through the camera. When the man saw it, he quickly apologized and opened the gate for us. We got back into the car and drove through that gate and into the beautiful courtyard. The guard must have informed the people in the house of our arrival. They came to invite us in like we were some special guests. Then a man in the black suit came to greet us. He didn't ask anything and just ushered us through the hall.
"Please, have some refreshment at the living room before my lady arrives," he said and bowed away. While we were waiting, I walked around the place just for the sake of looking around, and then I heard footsteps descending the grand stairs.
"How many times do I have to tell you?" a teenage girl's voice echoed through the hall. "Do you want my mother to fire you?"
The other person mumbled apologetically to the girl.
I walked closer to where the sound was, and then I saw a girl standing by the stairs. She had strawberry blonde hair and pale skin. Her petite body was adorned with expensive clothes and accessories. She was a walking cliché of a Barbie girl. But her hand was holding a pint of fresh blood. I cringed at the sight of that red-hot liquid. Suddenly, the girl's eyes caught me standing there.
"Is that a new drudge?" she hissed hungrily, baring her teeth.
"What?" I said in surprise and then realized she thought I was human. The girl flashed over and grabbed me by my shoulders. She extended her fangs and my eyes went wide in shock. I had never seen any vampire so uncharacteristically famished like this one before, and that made me freeze in place. But at the same time, Octavia came from behind and pushed the girl away from me.
A fierce growl rose from her stomach as she glared at the girl. But guess what? Just a moment ago, the girl had looked at me like I was chicken barbecues, but now she looked at Octavia like she was seeing a symbol of love. I found that really really disturbing.
The same man in the black suit came out again quickly.
"Miss. Charlene," the man said, "They are your mother's guests."
"What?" the girl asked, tossing her blonde lock back.
"She's a royal, Miss, Charlene," he said, pointing at my direction. But Charlene grimaced at me as if I had a rare disease.
Then we heard the sound of someone descending the staircases. We all looked up and saw a dark-haired man in his fifty or something. He gave us an overall look.
"What's with the noises down here?" He asked with a strange English accent I couldn't place.
"My lord," the suited man bowed, "We have some guests to visit."
"Really? That's very surprising," the vampire lord said then turned to the girl. "I don't like the way you treat our guests, young lady."
"Who knows? They look humans to me," Charlene said with a carefree shrug, but her eyes were still scrutinizing Octavia and me with great interest.
The lord looked at us and smiled apologetically, "I hope you may pardon my little daughter, she's just awakened last month. She still has trouble dealing with her hunger management."
"We come to see Lady Florentine," I said.
"I'm afraid you have to wait for a long while, she's off with some appointments," the vampire lord said. "So I would like to invite you to our dinner before my lady comes back."
"It's 12 o'clock," I said. "You have dinner at midnight?"
"What's wrong with that, my dear?" the man said politely. I guess I wasn't vampire enough to get that. But then Octavia gave me a nod of approval.
"We'd love to," she said.
Later, we learned that the man was Octavia's uncle-in-law, Robert. At the dining table, the host sat at the head of the table while his daughter sat opposite us. There were foods enough to feed an Arabian king. I was relieved when the servants lift the covers of our plates; there was nothing involved with blood. Except for one problem, the chief didn't know that I'm a vegetarian, so everything consisted of red juicy meat.
We introduced ourselves to Robert but still kept our covers. The man didn't ask any question, which was quite strange. He just told us about Ireland, about the Celtic warriors and Viking history. And instead of saying 'mud', he said, 'moouud' and instead of saying, 'gun' he said, 'goouun'. I fought back a smile every time I heard it.
Suddenly the maids placed glasses of red wine in front of us. The smell hit me immediately. I knew what was inside the glass without having to taste it. I guess my face was pretty green as I stared at the wineglass.
"What's the matter?" Robert asked when he noticed me.
I shook my head, "The drink looks ...um...delicious."
Then we all jumped up when the princess of this palace yelled at her maid.
"I told you I want O positive!" she burst out. "Is that very hard to understand?"
"I'm sorry, Miss. Charlene," the maid said, "The O blood has a universal demand."
"I don't care!" Charlene yelled. "Get me the O."
"Charlene, my dear," Robert warned. "Please, behave."
I wondered if the Lord had spent his long stretching life working on how to be a Zen master. He never raised his voice when he spoke to his daughter. I just couldn't believe how Octavia had such an adorable cousin.
"I'm not gonna eat until I get the blood I want," Charlene said and then stormed out of the dining hall.
Octavia and I exchanged look. Robert just sighed.
"Forgive me, my daughter is a bit of a spoiled kid," the father said. "It's because we love her so much. We had to wait for a long time until a baby born into our family. As you know, we're not as productive as the humans. And nothing can spoil a child rotten than the love of her old parents."
"You're not old," I said before I could stop myself. The vampire lord laughed whole-heartedly.
"I'm almost six hundred years, child," he said. "It's a miracle that we could give birth to Charlene at all. But it's a miracle to anyone of our kind, I guess."
I felt like he was also referring to our parents. I wasn't sure if he could sense something about us. But he didn't know that there was even a slighter chance to have babies with the humans, so I wasn't going to discuss the miracle of biology with him. Now I wonder if my dad had been alive, would he turn me into the next Charlene, too?
All of a sudden, we heard some conversation coming from the front door of the house, and the sound of high-heels echoed in the hall. I heard the servant told someone in a very respectful tone.
"You have some visitors, my lady," the man's voice informed.
"Who?"
"We don't dare ask them, but one of them wears a royal crest, and they insisted on seeing you," he said.
"A royal?" the woman said in wonder. "I must see them."
Then she walked toward the dining room, Octavia and I stood up from our chairs, turning our faces to see a beautiful woman. She was thin and pale, wearing a long white dress like a Greek mythology character.
Robert also rose from his seat and quickly came to greet his wife with a huge smile.
"My lady," he said. "You wouldn't have guessed who visiting us today."
The lord and lady might have been in the same age because they looked almost exactly alike. But the woman's piercing jade green eyes were locked with Octavia, and then she seemed like she was engulfed in shock and happiness. Octavia bowed at her aunt and I mimicked her.
"Do you remember me?" Octavia said, her voice vibrated a little.
Florentine's mouth fell open, tears starting to flow down her cheeks. "Oh my goodness! Octavia! My dear Octavia!"
She ran and gave her niece a tight huge. Octavia held her back. And when they pulled away, Florentine stroked Octavia's face like a blind person. My own eyes were stinging with tears. I was just blown away by their reunion.
"I thought you were dead, oh my god...but you're still alive," Florentine mumbled softly. "I thought I would never see you again, my lovely niece, you're so beautiful!"
Then after the first part of the family reunion was over, we were led to another room. Robert excused himself and left us in privacy. The place looked like an office. There were a desk and a large bookshelf next to the tall windows. As we all sat down on the cushion, Florentine's beautiful eyes were locked on me.
"And who is this lovely girl, Octa?" she asked, smiling at me. I could almost imagine what Octavia's mom looked like through her sister.
"I forgot to introduce you­- this is Vivienne," Octavia said, "We go to the same school together."
"What an incredibly adorable child," Florentine said, smiling brighter. I felt my cheeks blushed ridiculously.
"Aunt Florentine," Octavia turned to speak again. "We came here hoping that it wouldn't trouble you."
"Don't be so formal, child," the woman said. "After Priscilla, my beloved baby sister passed away, I had never heard of you. I'm just so overjoyed to see my niece's face again."
"Well, aunty," Octavia said. "As you know, mom was executed by the law of the Underworld...for marrying my father. But they're still not satisfied that I'm still alive. I've heard about the prophecy. So I want to know if you're familiar with anything related to it."
"Oh," Florentine paused and seemed to ponder for a while, "It's a secretive matter, indeed. Not many of us know a clear detail of the prophecy."
"So do you?" I asked.
"Well, fortunately, I do," she said. "The prophecy has started from the first vampires who had ever walked this earth. They were the originals. In many places, wherever vampires existed, there were always great civilizations. Sumerians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Indians, Chinese, they all have legends about vampire existence for thousands of years. In polytheism, people thought of vampires as one of their deities. They sacrificed animals and even humans, offering their blood to them. Sometime people would build great temples and tombs to honor them. Until the terrible destruction struck thousands of years ago, one by one, old glorious civilization began to vanish, some collapsed without a trace. The humans don't know much about the history, but the vampires who have lived for so long, keep it as secret. It was said that there was a hybrid child born from a vampire and a human. Once the child grew up, destructions began. He almost destroyed our entire species. Vampires went into hiding for centuries until that half-blood child was killed by one of the originals."
"The Originals?" I said. "Who are they?"
"They are immortal vampires," Florentine said. "They were the creators of our kind."
"I thought it was just a myth," I said.
"In our world, every myth comes from the truth," she said. "Some of the Immortals are still pretty much alive somewhere, except they are cursed and buried deep underground."
"What does it mean, cursed and buried?" I said, suddenly became more engaged in the conversation.
"It took a war to get all the immortal vampires hibernated," she said. "We spent a great deal of time and sacrificed a lot of lives before they were captured and entombed."
"Entombed?"
"Under great ancient architectures around the world," Florentine added. "Unlike normal true-bloods, the originals were far more bloodthirsty. They feed on both humans and vampires alike. And the prophecy said there will be another half-blood child born in our time. The hybrid can raid the vampire world once again. Also, the prophecy foretells about the Immortals rising from death if he or she drinks the child's blood. So tell me, what's the better way to stop this double extinction for both worlds than to prevent the prophecy from becoming true? Or better yet kill the prophesied children?"
"That's why they enforced the marriage law," I breathed, finally understood.
"Now, it doesn't matter," Florentine said. "The prophecy has already been fulfilled. The half-blood child has the power to bring the downfall to the Underworld as well as the humanity if they choose the wrong path."
"Why?" this time Octavia asked.
Florentine looked back at us. "Because you are part human and part vampire, that's what makes you different. You're the strongest of us all. No one can defy you, physically or mentally. It's a combination of perfections. You can either save or destroy either by choice or by default. That's why we fear you two."
"Oh, you already know what I am," I said, feeling surprised for getting caught.
"I have lived for five centuries, my dear. What makes you think I don't know?" she said with a musical laugh. "Only the young vampires get fooled by you. The moment I saw you, I just knew you're not like any of us or any of the humans either."
"I'm sorry, aunty," Octavia said. "I didn't mean to hide from you..."
"There's no need to apologize, Octavia, sweetheart," she said. "You have every right to concern about your safety. I'm just utterly happy that my niece is still alive after all."